Solidarity has been used as a powerful word among Occupiers across the world over the past few monthes. Today, there is one group though that has put the idea of solidarity to use in a unbelievable way. The police. Several police forces, including the NYPD, have been coordinating their actions with the advice of federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and FBI according to an anonymous federal source.

Some of the federal consulting involved media tactics, ways to effectively attack protestors, and how to intimidate any enemies of the police state. These tactics, though propagandized as monstrous when used by foreign regimes like Libya, Syria, and Pakistan, used by our own police forces demonstrate the full reality of life in the US in the post-9/11 security culture crafted under the Bush administration, and maintained under Obama. I voted for Obama, and generally vote Democrat, and am incredibly disapointed in the actions of those I voted for to protect the civil liberties of my fellow citizens. It’s a common sentiment, but I now, more than ever, believe that if corporations are people, then tents are protected speech.

Today, there have been police raids across the country, here in New York, Charlotte, Columbus, Germany, and the Seattle PD are attacking protesters there with pepper spray as I write this. Today, the NYPD took the advice of the Department of Homeland Security and enforced a decision Mayor Bloomberg made under the stress of the power corporation using fear-mongering and doublespeak . Over 200 people were arrested this morning as riot police, in a show of state terror descended on Zuccotti in the hundreds and brutalized protesters as they deliberately kept away media “for their own safety.” They destroyed the amazing piece of collaborative work that had become known as the People’s Library., which, on a personal note, truly saddens me.

The NYCLU, in defense of Occupy Wall Street, assisted in filing an injunction against the police to allow the protestors back into the park with their gear, but the injunction was downgraded to just allow sleeping in the park with sleeping bags but no tents. As this is being written, over 1500 have assembled in Zuccotti for the first General Assembly to occur since this morning’s raid.

It’s ironic that this raid comes up on the two month birthday of the Wall Street Occupation, but it’s significant for another reason. Including today’s arrests, there have been over 4000 arrests, the number arrested in Iran after their last election. These arrests were crucial in the ignition of the Arab Spring. Let’s home the same is true for the American Autumn. From what I understand, the park will be reoccupied tonight, but I worry that there will be more arrests. We’ll see tomorrow.

There have been a total of 75 arrests at Occupy Atlanta over the course of the past few weeks. These arrests have been spread over three police encounters, two of which were particularly violent police raids on the camp.

After several threats of eviction, Atlanta PD finally raided Occupy Atlanta at Woodruff Park. The raid took place at 1:00 AM on October 26. Originally, Mayor Kasim Reed had provided the Occupation with an executive order protecting their right to assemble, but earlier that day it had been revoked. Included in the 51 arrested was a GA state senator, Vincent Fort.

Several days later, the protesters appealed to the University administration to reinstate their protest permit.The administration refused, but the protesters reoccupied anyway. The UNM PD deployed more than 60 police cars to disperse the peaceful assembly.

It’s been an extremely dangerous weekend for Occupations around the USA.

Friday:
There were a total of 76 Occupy related arrests on Friday alone. 3 Protestors were arrested early Friday morning at Occupy Tampa for trespassing in the park Occupy Tampa has made their base of operations. A police raid on Occupy San Diego early Friday morning found 44 protestors arrested as the police in riot gear dismantled the camp. Police also raided Occupy Nashville, but the 46 arrested were released when a magistrate refused to acknowledge the right of the police to arrest demonstrators in a public place.

Saturday
A total of 89 demonstrators were arrested in several Occupy related clashes with police on Saturday. Police raided Occupy Rochester early Saturday, dismantling the camp and arresting 32 protestors after protestors refused to leave a park. Later that day, police violently clashed with over 500 protestors marching on downtown Denver. Police opened fire on the Occupy Denver protestors with pepper spray and rubber bullets, and many were injured. More than 20 were arrested, and another protestor was arrested at Occupy Tampa for trespassing. For a second night running, police raided Occupy Nashville, arresting 26 people. They were released again by the same magistrate without charges being filed.

A total of 81 protestors were arrested yesterday. Police clashed with Occupy Austin over a food table, and 36 protestors were arrested as protestors. There were 15 more arrests at Occupy Denver as police followed up the Saturday attack with a late night raid on the camp. 30 protestors were arrested at Occupy Portland for refusing to leave a park that morning as well.

In total over 240 occupiers were arrested for exercising their 1st amendment rights. By the end of this past weekend 2963 protestors around the world have been arrested since Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan.

On Wednesday, October 5th, several unions turned out in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement in a collective march. Protestors were joined by the Communication Workers of America, the Transport Workers Union Local 100, the United Federation of Teachers, and 2 SEIU chapters. Nearly 15000 turned out for the march which brought lower Manhattan to a near standstill. As the march continued into the night, the NYPD response got more aggressive, with repeated baton-assaults, pepper-macing, and arrests. Nearly two dozen were arrested that night.

This was the third time Occupy protestors clashed with the police, and the number of arrests now totalled over 800. This was the third consecutive clash with police in New York over the Occupy movement.

On October 1, 2011, about 700 protesters were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge. Starting at Zucotti Park, what had started as a march throughout lower Manhattan grew to a crowd of thousands. Whether by police manipulation, crowd choice, or what may have been spontaneous events, the march found itself on the Brooklyn Bridge, where protestors faced off against the NYPD. Nearly haflway across the bridge, the officers pen in the crowd and began arresting hundreds of people. Those arrested where shipped of to precincts across Brooklyn, and it was days before they were all released.

This was the second time police clashed with the protestors., by this point about 780 people had been arrested.